Multiple hopper vehicle



Ml'cll 1970 J; H. FREEMAN, JR 3,493,436

MULTIPLE HOPPER VEHICLE Filed Feb. 9, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jesse H. Freeman. Jr.

Max:113, 1970 J. a. FR EEMAN, JR 3,498,486

MULTIPLE HOPPER VEHICLE Filed Feb. 9, 1968 ZSheetS-Sheet 2 a n ma m N e 6 V f mF H e s M. J Y B fill! Y w W a 7 Q m .m 75.F 8

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,498,486 MULTIPLE HOPPER VEHICLE Jesse H. Freeman, (in, 2585 Nelson St., Lakewood, Colo. 80215 Filed Feb. 9, 1968, Ser. No. 704,313 Int. Cl. B6011 1/38; B65g 65/42 US. Cl. 214-501 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A multiple compartment vehicle has at least two hoppers for granular, construction type materials, each with a bottom mounted, side delivery conveyor, and/ or a rear mounted dumping compartment for excavated material and rubble.

Various types of small construction work, which includes gravel base course, asphalt paving, and the like, requires the same types of materials used for large construction work, however, in considerably smaller quantities. For example, in a small job of paving or asphalting a side walk, driveway, or the like which has been broken up, it is necessary to remove the broken pavement material, prepare a new bed for the subsequent paving material, normally spreading a layer of gravel base course as support, and then placing paving material on the prepared gravel. For jobs which takes only a yard or two of material, providing a rubble hauling vehicle, a conventional gravel truck, and a conventional dump truck for asphalt mix is entirely too expensive. Further, where only small quantities are necessary concrete work such as patching is required, large trucks will not fill the economic bill. In addition, most trucks with a single material compartment are equipped with means for discharging the material at the rear of the truck. Multiple compartment trucks of the prior art are normally equipped for hauling the same type of material in each of the compartments; the compartments being merely a convenient means for segregating various loads of the same type of material.

According to the present invention I 'have provided a multiple compartment truck in which at least two of the compartments are individually provided with an unloading conveyor which delivers to one side of the truck, and/ or which has a third dumping compartment for hauling rubble and the like. Additionally, the vehicle may be provided with a tank, which may be heated, for such materials as oil, asphalt, other bituminous material for use in asphalt type paving, water, etc. The vehicle, also, is provided with a movable wall to permit varying the capacity of the two conveyor unloaded compartments for the construction material. The conveyors for the compartments are arranged for independent operation whereby one or both hoppers may be independently unloaded.

Included among the objects and advantages of the present invention is a multiple compartment vehicle having at least two bottom discharge compartments, each of which is provided with a side delivery conveyor.

A further object of the invention is to provide a multiple compartment or hopper vehicle, at least two hoppers of which are provided with bottom conveyor actuated discharge systems, and at least one of which is a rear dumping container.

A further object of the invention is to provide a multiple hopper vehicle in which at least two of the hoppers are of a variable capacity.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a multiple compartment vehicle in which a rear opening compartment is arranged to utilize a tail gate as a por- 3,498,486 Patented Mar. 3, 1970 tion of the bottom of the hopper, all of which is arranged as a rear dumping compartment.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a multiple hopper vehicle in which two of the hoppers thereof are provided with independently controlled power actuated conveyors having a side delivery capacity for discharge of material from the hoppers.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention may be readily ascertained by referring to the following description an appended illustrations in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a multiple compartment vehicle according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the multiple hopper portion of the vehicle of FIG. 1, in enlarged detail;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a multiple hopper vehicle, partially cut-away, illustrating the discharge mechanism of the vehicle;

FIG. 4 is a rear elevation of a vehicle body according to the invention, in partial section, illustrating the discharge conveyor o-f the system;

FIG. 5 is a partial top plan view of a drive arrangement for the discharge mechanism;

FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view of the rear hopper mechanism; and

FIG. 7 is a side elevational view of the rear hopper mechanism of the vehicle according to the invention.

In the drawings in FIG. 1 a six wheel truck is indicated by numeral 10, this includes a conventional wheeled, truck frame 12, a cab arrangement 14, and a multiple compartment truck body as indicated by numeral 20. The truck body is provided with a bottom plate 27 (or frame). In the device illustrated, the body includes a rear hopper or compartment 21 and a forward hopper 22, defined by upright walls 23 and 24 on opposite sides; a sloped bottom 25 and 26 for the rear and forward hopper bottoms respectively. An endless conveyor 30 such as a belt or sliding chains with cross-bars is mounted in the bottom of the rear hopper 21, and an endless conveyor 31 is mounted in the bottom of the hopper 22. A pivotal wall 35 divides the body into the two hoppers. An opening 37 in the Wall 24 provides a discharge for the content of the rear hopper 21, and an opening 38 forward thereof provides an opening for the hopper or compartment 22. Conventional closure means, such as sliding doors, pivotal doors, or the like may be provided for these openings for retaining a load for tarnsportation to the place of use.

The partition 35 is pivoted adjacent its bottom and it is arranged to pivot forwardly (or in some cases rearwardly) to change the capacity of the either of the two hoppers 21 or 22. One method of positioning the partition 32 is illustrated in FIG. 3 wherein an angle members 40 and 41 are attached to opposite sides at about the middle of the hopper and a pin 42 on one side and a pin 43 on the opposite side provides means for holding the partition against the stop angles 40 and 41. This arrangement holds the partition in an upright position. An opening in the wall spaced forwardly of the upright position, shown in the one wall as opening 45 provides means for inserting the stop pins to hold the partition 35 at an angle position so that the capacity of the forward hopper is reduced and the capacity of the rearward hopper is increased. This provides means for carrying a larger amount of one substance, for example, more hot mix asphalt and a lesser amount of bed gravel, for a job that requires such a diiferential. Thus, by changing the position of the partition 35 the capacity of the rear hopper may be increased for the additional material while the capacity of the front hopper may be decreased for the lesser requirement of both material.

The endless conveyors are provided with upstanding ribs, cross-bars, or flanges for aiding in discharge of material in the hopper, and conveyor 30 has ribs 30a spa-ced 1y mounted thereon and the conveyor 31 has upstanding ribs 31a spacedly mounted thereon. As shown in FIG. 3 the conveyors are mounted on head and tail pulleys, for example, conveyor 31 is mounted on head and tail pulleys 51 and 52 respectively which are driven by a chain drive 53. Sprockets are, of course, attached to the head and tail pulleys for the chain 53. A pair of drive sprockets 54 mounted on a shaft 55 drives the chain 53. A clutch 56 provides means for engaging or disengaging in the shaft 55. An engine 65 driving a drive pulley 57 provides driving power through a belt 58 to pulleys 59 mounted on the shaft 54. The conveyor 30 is driven by a pair of sprockets 60 mounted on shaft 61 which is driven by a pulley 62 directed by a drive conveyor 63 to the shaft 55. A clutch 63 provides means for engaging or disengaging the shaft for independent driving of the conveyor 30.

A generally triangular shape tank 70 may be mounted on the bed 27 of the truck body under the hopper bottom 26 for containing liquids, such as prime or tack coat, or asp-halt materials, etc. An opening 71 provides means for attaching a heat exchanger 72, internally of the tank, to the exhaust system of the truck, with an outlet 73 for attaching to an overhead exhaust outlet. A thermostat arrangement (not shown) with a by-pass effectively provides means for applying exhaust heat to the oil where necessary for maintaining the content of the tank at a desired temperature. A pump and hose, not shown, communicating with the tank and operated by the engine 65, provides a simple means for discharging or spraying the content of the tank as desired.

In certain instances, a chute may be desired at the discharge outlets of the hoppers, and as illustrated in FIG. 4 a simple planar chute 75 secured by means of guy wires 76 provides means for transferring material from the conveyor 31 to a point spaced from the truck. The chute is preferably made removable or foldable so as to maintain width clearance for highway operation. Other types and members of chutes may obviously be used in place of the one shown.

The third compartment of the vehicle is an excavated material and rubble compartment at the rear of the truck, under the sloping bottom 25 of the regular hopper. This compartment includes a triangular shaped enclosure in which includes a bottom 80 sloped front wall 81 and side walls 82 and 83. This container is pivotally attached at corners 84 and 85 to the truck bed and tilts rearwardly for dumping. To pivot the container a hydraulic cylinder 85 secured at end 86 to the truck chassis, a connection not being shown, and its piston rod 87 is attached to th bed 80 of the compartment. Actuation of the cylinder 85 tilts the compartment into a dump position, illustrated in FIG. 7. A tail gate 90 is pivotally secured at 91 and 92 to the bottom 80, illustrated in FIG. 7. The tail gate 90 pivots upwardly and sides 93 and 94 slide along the sides 83 and 82 respectively. The tail gate moves horizontally to add additional carrying capacity for the compartment. The tail gate is controlled by means of hydraulic cylinders 95 at one side and 96 on the other. These are arranged to move tail gate from an upright position, shown in FIG. 1 to a horizontal position for carrying a load therein. When it is desired to dump the content of the compartment, actuation of the cylinder 85 tilts the compartment and the tail gate.

When the vehicle is used, for example, for hot asphalt paving, compartment 21 may be loaded with base course gravel and a compartment 22 loaded with a hot asphalt. At the job location, the rear compartment is opened by lowering the tail gate 90 and any rubble at the paving cite is then loaded onto the compartment to get it out of the way for the paving operation. The engine 56 is then started and conveyor 30 is operated to place gravel base course for the hot asphalt surfacing. This gravel is then spread and compacted as desired. The hot asphalt is then released by operating the conveyor 31 to dump the required amount of hot asphalt onto the bed of base course.

When the paving operation is completed, the truck may be driven to dump and the waste material and rubble discharged prior to moving on to the next job.

A particular drive system is shown for the endless conveyors for the hoppers, however, it will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that various types of drives may be used for the conveyors and various types of power plants may be utilized for driving the conveyors, for example, a power take-off from a vehicle engine may be used through a rear box or operating the conveyors. Normally, however, a separate engine is desired since in some cases the material may be discharged while the vehicle is moving slowly along the job. Obviously other means may be provided for heating the hot oil tank. It is preferable to provide heat for the tanks since oil or asphalt may be stored in the container for a period of time and such material normally solidifies on the cooling. Further, instead of the unit being mounted on a truck, it may be mounted as a trailer and a tractor used for transporting it from place to place. The slope of the bottom of the compartments discharged by the conveyors, should be greater than the angles of repose of material contained therein. This reduces manpower requirements as the material is discharged without manual aid pushing it on to the conveyors. It may be desirable to have the sloped bottoms pivotal and thereby provide a variable angle of the slope.

I claim:

1. A multiple compartment material container comprising frame means arranged for mounting on a wheeled vehicle, a hopper mounted on said frame means including an adjustable partition in said hopper providing two variable compartments therein; endless conveyor means in the bottom of each compartment extending laterally thereof and each terminating at a side outlet for its respecive hopper; drive means for each said conveyor means; and each said hopper having walls terminating at said conveyor means; the side walls of each said hopper being substanstantially upright and the end Wall thereof being sloped at an angle greater than the angle of repose of the material carried therein; dumping compartment means mounted under the rear sloping wall of the rear of said two compartments including at least one wallmember pivotally mounted at one end for raising to an upright carrying position and to a lower dumping position.

2. A multiple compartment material container according to claim 1 in which said at least one wall member is a tailgate pivotally mounted to said dumping compartment forming a closure therefore in upright position, and forming an extension of said dumping compartment in horizontal position.

3. A multiple compartment material container according to claim 2 wherein said tailgate includes side members forming a portion of said dumping compartment when said tailgate is in horizontal position.

4. A multiple compartment material container according to claim 2 in which said tailgate is arranged to tilt with said dumping compartment during dumping operations.

5. A multiple compartment material container according to claim 1 in which said dumping compartment is pivotally mounted on said frame means and at least one hydraulic cylinder provides means for tilting said dumping compartment into and out of dumping position.

6. A multiple compartment material container according to claim 1 wherein said partition is pivoted adjacent its bottom and stop means are provided for the top thereof so as to change the capacity of said compartments.

7. A multiple compartment material container according to claim 1 wherein said endless conveyors are sliding chain conveyors with cross-bars and said drive means is arranged to independently drive each said conveyor means.

8. A multiple compartment material container according to claim 1 wherein a storage tank for liquids is mounted under the forward of said sloping walls, and a heat exchanger for hot exhaust gases extends through said tank providing heating means for the content of said storage tank.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Sagle et al 298-7 Shafer.

Renault 214-8336 XR Knutson 214-8336 Swenson 214--83.36 XR Murphy 239-423 X 10 ALBERT J. MAKAY, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

